Building each quarter, the Northern Comets inflicted a second straight win over their netball sisters the Northern Marvels, with a commanding 27-goal victory in the Synergy Hair Netball League.
Having met just over a week ago, when the Comets got the better of their northern rivals by 14-goals, the Michelle Parsons-coached side dominated from the start at The Trusts Arena in Auckland on Sunday to net a 64-37 win.
Comets defender Lisa Putt, who put in an MVP performance with 12 deflections and one intercept, said the team had worked hard on building from the previous week.
“Our entire season has been about unit work and getting our team all through the court connected. I thought it was really good today,” she said.
Marvels captain Rebekah Roache said the impacts from Covid, with players coming in and out of the squad early in the season, had been disruptive for the side but with one game to go they would be looking to finish strongly.
“We played our best and we’ll just be looking at building our connections with one more game,” she said.
It was a more polished performance from the Comets – led by the defensive efforts of Putt and her circle mate Greer Sinclair while at the other end of the court shooter Crystal Maro was in top form landing 96 per cent of her attempts at goal.
The battle of the sisters extended into the Mather family with siblings Holly (Marvels) and Lisa (Comets) matching up in the midcourt in the opening quarter – the latter getting the early bragging rights as the Comets raced out to a 15-6 at the first break.
In what has been a disrupted season for the Marvels, coach Natalie Milicich was fielding a different 10-strong squad from last week and her side spent some time building connections on court.
She looked to her bench for the second stanza with Alyssa-Jean Savelio coming on at goal attack in a bid to lift their scoring accuracy.
At the other end of the court, the Marvels combination of Catherine Hall and Jessie Taylor worked well together in the defensive circle picking up a number of deflections in the second spell as the hosts’ intensity lifted.
But the Comets’ relentless pressure throughout the court, with hands over the ball, caused plenty of problems for their opponents as they extended their lead to 30-18 by halftime.
Maro was again a stand-out missing just two of her 38 attempts at goal and providing a strong target in the shooting circle for the Comets’ feeders while Sinclair’s versatility was again highlighted having already played for three ANZ Premiership teams and now picking up her third position in the national netball league after wearing the goal defence bib against the Marvels. She nabbed five intercepts and four deflections in another strong performance.
The Comets’ defensive pressure restricted the Marvels to just seven goals in the third spell and a string of five unanswered goals late in the stanza saw the lead balloon out to 25 goals with one quarter to play.
The other Synergy Hair Netball League match played this weekend saw Waikato-BOP beat the Southern Blast 49-41 at the Silver Fern Farms Event Centre in Te Aroha.